Die schönsten Tierfabeln

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Here are 58 fables with sprightly illustrations. The fun begins with the animal cartoons that surround the opening T of C. Even before then, there is a worm crawling on the final N of the book's title on the title-page. Among the best illustrations is one of those for TMCM that shows the two mice napping after enjoying the city-meal (11). Ants are having tea together underneath the stork's chair in FS (17). On 32, the monkey is enjoying nuts while the cat lies with both front paws bandaged! Die neun dummen Wölfe (58) is new to me but presented here as the oldest known fable, known from a clay tablet from Sumeria. Ten wolves draw ten sheep away from the flock. The wolf leader says to his fellow wolves You are nine. Here is one sheep that is yours, and that makes ten. I and nine sheep also make ten. I am distributing fairly, ten to ten. All the wolves clamor their approval, and the leader makes off with the nine sheep. Among the best of these spirited illustrations is that of the dog who falsely accused the lamb and makes off with her wool. We see on 74 a lamb who has only a tuft left on her head and around her middle. Morals are rendered in rhyming verses. The moral of porcupines trying to live together (85) starts with these two lines: Man kommt sich näher,/wenn man Abstand hält…. The crow decked out in others' feathers is another masterpiece (89)! One of the best full-page illustrations presents the two goats arguing on the bridge (99). GA ends with a reconciliation and a personal concert for the ant (109). The six-page overview of the genre at the book's end is well done.